Posts archive for August, 2018

It’s easy to forget that you’re not invincible — that you’re a human that’s capable of making mistakes whose capable of being involved in a car crash. It could be because of bad luck or because you weren’t prepared for the road enough — regardless, it’s important to understand what to do if you do crash.

Make Sure The Crash Isn’t A Hazard

The first thing you need to do is to make sure another crash doesn’t occur in the area. This might not come intuitively, but a crash in the road is a hazard that people might not be prepared for.
In order to ensure the safety of others, remove everything that could possibly break and fall from the crashed vehicles such as debris and broken glass. While doing this, make sure that you’re safe.
The next thing is to switch off the ignition of the crashed vehicles to ensure that there’s no risk of fire and to switch on hazard warning lights. This is to make sure other cars are more alert to the situation and understand that they should be careful.

Reporting To The Police

Depending on the situation, there’s a chance that the Police may observe and analyse the crash. If you feel that there has been significant damage to property, especially one that will cause a hazard — make sure to call the Police.
If this does happen, make sure that you provide the Police investigating the crash with as much information as possible. This includes all details of the crash that you recollect as well as the personal details of yourself, the other party and any witnesses.
If the Police don’t attend the crash, understand that you should report the crash as soon as possible within 24 hours. While this might seem scary, it’s important to understand that you won’t get into trouble and that they’re an organisation who is trying to understand and help in the situation.
If you need more information on interactions with the police: Crash Reporting FAQs

Interacting With The Other Party

The most important part of interacting with the other party is to exchange details. It is required for both parties to provide each other with names, addresses, license details and vehicle registration numbers.
At this stage, it’s also important to note the other owner’s licence plate number and to also make sure your licence plate is provided to the other owner.
At this stage, make sure you take several photos of the crash scene for future references so there are concrete details of the crash. This is important to reduce the amount of hearsay in the situation.
If the crash is severe and a tow truck is needed, a driver is required (unless injury prevents them) to arrange for the towing of their vehicle.
If you have insurance, it’s important to contact your insurer and make arrangements with them.

Don’t Stress

Understand that situations like these happen and that you can move on from the crash. There might be a lesson to be learnt and there might not. Regardless, it’s important to not panic, to understand the process and the best next moves to make in the situation.
If you want further information on how to prevent crashes and become a safe driver, LTrent is happy to help. Please call us on (02) 8748 4500 or email [email protected]
The LTrent Safer Drivers Course can also assist NSW learners with safe driving behaviours and how to handle distractions through 3 hours of theory and 2 hours of practical driving sessions. You can find course dates and times here.

It’s time for you to take your driving test and you’re afraid of failing — which is a reasonable fear. It’s a good idea to understand the ways that most people fail. Here are the most common ways that people fail the driving test.

Failing to check intersections properly

An extremely common way to fail the driving test is to check intersections poorly. The reason why checking intersections properly is so important is because you’re more likely to get into an accident at an intersection than driving on a straight road.
This is because it requires a reset in your mind where you have to stop, make sure to check properly that there aren’t cars that can potentially crash into you and then move as opposed to driving straight the entire time.
A common way to fail is by not turning your head to take a look when you approach an intersection. Note that this is extremely important even if there are cars that are meant to be stopped at a red light — as you never know if people will accidentally break the rules and crash into you.

Performing manoeuvres unsafely

The most common manoeuvres to fail are three-point turns and reverse parks. A common way to fail is due to a strong focus on getting the manoeuvre correct and forgetting to do traffic checks to ensure that it’s actually safe to start the manoeuvre in the first place.
Another way people fail is by not positioning properly or not doing the manoeuvre properly and not realising it until after the instructor has checked. Finally, it’s common to fail the kerb side parking by not parking close enough to the kerb.
Manoeuvres come with practice and we recommend that you dedicate certain driving sessions purely to practice manoeuvres. Training your muscle memory to intuitively understand how to perform them is crucial.

Not turning at an intersection at the right moment

A common way for people to fail is to go too early or too late at an intersection. The more common one is for people to get nervous at an intersection and impulsively cross the intersection unsafely.
It’s important to make sure that during your driving practice, you understand when there is a satisfactory gap to drive and that if you have a satisfactory gap, you take it.

Failing to observe regulatory signs

A sure way to fail is by not following regulatory signs. This includes not stopping at stop signs. Many people fail by slowing down at stop signs as if they are give way signs instead of stopping completely — an instant fail.
Furthermore, crossing unbroken lines by accident is common. It’s important to understand that you cannot cross white unbroken lines and to revise on regulatory signs before taking the test.

Speed

Many drivers fail the driving test by failing to drive at the appropriate speed — whether it’s too fast or too slow. Especially on longer stretches on main roads, it’s common to lose focus and drive at the same speed that other cars are driving.
However, if other cars are speeding, that doesn’t mean that you’re permitted to speed as well — which will lead to a fail in your driving test.
If you have any enquiries on how to pass the driving test, contact LTrent here.

What If I Fail My Driving Test?

There were a million things that could have gone wrong during your driving test and sadly, something did. Unlucky for you, you just failed your driving test and you’re wondering what to do next.
The first thing is to not panic — only 40% of people pass the driving test on the first try. That means that 60% of people fail the driving test the first time they take the test.
A key thing you have to know is that if you fail the test you cannot drive away on your own and it’s required a licensed driver is with you.

The Process After The Test

If you haven’t taken the driving test yet, it’s important to understand the process you will go through after the test. When you return to the registry, your testing officer will calculate your result on the test score sheet as you wait.
After your result is ready, you’ll be called to the counter. If you passed the driving test then you’ll be congratulated with a new P1 licence that you will need to pay for.
But if you failed, the test score sheet will indicate areas of improvement and the officer will make brief comments on what you could have done better.
However, testing officers are not permitted to discuss any specific situations or events. Through the general comments, it’s important for you to draw upon the specific situations where you could have made a mistake.
If you are genuinely unsatisfied with the way the test was conducted because the test was conducted unfairly and not just because you were unhappy with the result, you have an opportunity to contact the manager of the registry who will look into the complaint and have a further discussion with necessary.

Becoming a better driver

On the other hand, it’s wise to look on the positive side of the situation — you’re able to get more practice in and you’ll be an even better driver when you do get your licence.
There are numerous ways you could have failed the driving test. The most common are:

Disobeying traffic signs, signals or road markings

Failing to give away when necessary

Colliding with a vehicle, pedestrian or object

Performing an illegal act or manoeuvre

Remember that in order to the pass the driving test you must have no more than 3 errors in the pre-drive checklist, no critical error mistakes and no more than 15 errors while driving on the road.

The Test Score Sheet

If you want to have a look at the test score sheet, look in your driver’s manual or here on page 36.
Nevertheless, if you have failed you will receive your test score sheet back with what you’ve done well and what errors you made.
Maybe you might have driven perfectly except for one critical error mistake you made because you didn’t stop at a stop sign because you were nervous or maybe you didn’t manage to reverse parallel park (link to reverse parallel parking blog) properly.
Regardless of what caused you to fail, it will be on the score sheet and it’s important to look at the score sheet and improve on it next time.
If you want help with understanding how you can improve, feel free to book a lesson with LTrent with your score sheet and our experienced instructors will make sure you fix your mistakes so you have a better chance at passing the driving test next time.

Next Steps

The next steps are to book another driving test. You must wait a minimum of seven days before taking another Driving Test. If you want to book another driving test, you’re able to book at the registry that you took the test right then and there.
However, LTrent recommends that you practice what you’ve done wrong before booking again.